Category Archives: Find

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Window Shopping: Life on Churchill St.

January 31, 2013

I’d like to introduce you to my friend Julia of Life on Churchill St.  Julia and I are just online, bloggy friends, but if we lived closer to each other, I’m pretty sure we would be real life friends as well.  
Life on Churchill is a really great blog.  It’s one of my personal favorite reads.  It’s a mix of crafts, diys, family, design and so much more.  She has just opened her Etsy Shop.  I’m really excited about the vintage and antique finds she already has there.  And I know she’ll be on the hunt for more great finds.  And check this out, she is offering O+P readers a special discount.  Now through February 14th you can get 10% off (enter code VINTAGEVALENTINE10). I hope you head over there and check out the Life on Churchill St. shop.    

Framed Paintings // Vintage Clock
Hangers // Brass Birds
I’ve asked Julia to give herself a little introduction.
Hi, I’m Julia, I share about vintage finds, inspirational ideas, and a bit about daily life on my blog. I love connecting with new friends through blogging. It is so encouraging to find like minded friends with similar interests.

I’m a mom of two preschoolers, we live in Minnesota after growing up near the coast of Georgia. My background is product design and my husband is a designer too, it impacts how we live our daily life. My faith in Christ is really important to me and I try to integrate in Life on Churchill.
Julia has some great tips and tricks for thrifting, you can read more about them here.  She also did a little thrifting Q&A with me.
What’s you favorite thing to thrift shop for? 
I love a good piece of mid century furniture. That is always the first thing I look for. Once I check out furniture I look for home decor, everything from knobs and handles to vases and vintage children’s toys. 
What is your holy grail, or the one item you are always looking for?
I would love to find a vintage Eames lounge chair. I keep telling myself if I’m patient and continue to look I will someday find one! I’ve also been on the lookout for a vintage fisher price a-frame house to add to our fisher price collection. 
What’s your best thrifting find of all time? 
A few years ago a neighbor had a garage sale. I just stopped for a moment and spotted a brass birds wall hanging. I bought it for $15 and later confirmed with the Artisan House that it is a Birds in Flight by Curtis Jere valued over $1000. It fits in nicely over our fireplace.
How often do you make it to a junk, thrift or antique store?
I visit the thrift store at least once a week. I go frequently enough that I recognize a lot of the employees and I’m sure they recognize me too. I visit a few estate sales on average once a month. And antique stores maybe once a quarter. I love antique stores but can’t afford to pay premium prices.
Do you have any thrift regrets, something you wish you wouldn’t have bought?
Not one in particular. I do sometimes buy things for nostalgia sake and then realize later that the toy is broken or the book’s binder is severely worn. The good news about thrifting is the items are affordable. I like that I’m giving a product a second life, and if I re-donate it later someone will likely adopt it again.
I hope you’ll show a little love and head over to Life on Churchill St. Blog and Etsy Shop.  Be a friend and leave a comment, pin one of her great crafts, or do a little shopping.  

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Window Shopping – Ikea 2013

January 21, 2013

A couple weeks ago, on our way back from my parent’s place, we stopped in San Francisco and I got to walk around Ikea.  I hadn’t been in a few months, so I was in need of an Ikea fix.  There were lots of “new to me” items that caught my eye.  Here’s a round up of of some of my favorites.  

I did bring home a couple of the green velvet pillows for our couch.  The Pantone color of the year is Emerald, so I couldn’t resist.  It may look like grey is my favorite color, but it’s really green. Every good redhead should love the color green, right?  Grey is just my favorite neutral.  It plays together so nicely with all the colors.

I also bought this fun log tray, it was only $2.99.  I’m starting to think I might have a tray problem, I really love using them and displaying things on them.  Well, maybe it’s not really that big of a problem, now that I count them, I really only own six or maybe seven.

And if you follow my instagram (@jeranmcconnel) you might also have seen the bookshelf/picture ledges that I put up in Dylan’s room.  Those were of course an Ikea purchase, the Ribba ledges.  I’ll post more about those soon, because they were a great solution for storage in a small space.

I really love Ikea.  To prove it, I’ve been to Ikea in SIX different countries (Canada, US, England, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Australia).  That’s pretty good, right?  Are you a fan?  How can you not be when there’s meatballs and furniture all in one place?

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Photo Christmas Cards

December 14, 2012

It’s that time of year.  Time to order Christmas cards.  Really, weren’t cards totally boring before the invention of photo cards.  I love sending and receiving them.  This year I’m ordering from Minted.  They have fantastic holiday cards to suite any taste and the quality of the paper and options are amazing.  You can even have rounded corners and patterned edges to your cards.

Here’s a few of my favorites.  I haven’t decided which one I’m going with, but how can I go wrong with these options?

Minted has this really great option that makes choosing the right card for you photo really easy.  The Find it Fast feature allows you to upload an image and then it displays your image in ALL the cards.  Isn’t that awesome?  You don’t have to select each card one by one and add the image and then decide if it will work.  This feature saved me lots of time.

Are you sending out photo Christmas cards this year?  How many do you send out? This weekend I was discussing with a friend who are the people that really should get a Christmas card.  I really only send cards to close family and friends.  I keep my list pretty short.  How long is your list?  I’m curious.

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Vintage Style Tinsel Tree

December 5, 2012

This year we are being soooo untraditional.  I’m still not sure if I am ok with it.  But we DIDN’T get a real tree this year!  I love real trees, nothing compares.  I love the smell, the lights and I love their imperfections.  We always have one, well I guess we had an artificial one in Papua New Guinea and Yemen, but always in the States.  We are heading to my parent’s house in Northern Cal for Christmas this year.  So, last year I bought this cute silver tinsel tree after Christmas thinking it would be a fun alternative to a live tree.  And we wouldn’t have to worry about the tree dying while we are gone. 
I love the sparse branches and it feels very retro.  I have it in our dining room and it’s really quite glamorous (which I am totally not) in there.   
I’ve been collecting vintage and vintage style glass ornaments since we first married.  My mother in law got me started.  I mostly like natural objects like pinecones, nuts and a few woodland animals, mostly in metallics and a little green and red.  These are kind of an investment. But, almost all of them were bought the day after Christmas, so they were at least 50% off. I love my fancy ornaments, and I am that awful mom that doesn’t hang my kids handmade ornaments on the family tree.  I have little trees in my kids rooms, and they can hang whatever they want on them.  Anyways, I thought my ornaments would really look great on a tinsel tree.  And they do.  But, I’m still missing the lights and the  pine smell that can’t be replaced. My kids are even ok with it, I’m the one that’s a little bummed.  So, for now I’m sticking with the tinsel tree, but we’ll see how long I last. Maybe we need just a little one. 
I got these really great ornament hooks at World Market.  They come in gold as well.
I found a few sources for some pretty good looking tinsel trees.  That champagne colored one is pretty great.
Green Tinsel // Champagne Tinsel
Silver Tinsel // Set of trees
What are your thoughts on having an artificial tree? Are you a sucker for a real tree like me, or are they just a hassle and too messy?